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The IRS Should Investigate Tea Party Groups on Non-Profit Applications

As Republicans continue to gin up the IRS “scandal” of targeting Tea Party groups for claiming non-profit status on their taxes, some interesting omissions from our friends on the Right. The rash of non-profit applications by Tea Party and Right Wing anti-tax groups stemmed from the passage of Citizens United; the IRS offices were simply overwhelmed with applications and most of the reporting seems to reveal that agents tried to find a way to streamline the work via keyword searches.

First and foremost, the IRS is supposed to investigate non-profit status on an organization before granting that status and the groups must be involved in social justice not political activity. The Tea Party and its related groups fails miserably on that count alone. Secondly, the IRS investigation into Tea Party groups began in 2010 at the request of seven Republicans targeted by the Tea Party in primary battles.

From Crooks and Liars:

Seven Republican members of Congress filed complaints with the IRS in 2010, claiming Tea Party groups engaged in partisan electioneering, leading to an IRS probe, according to agency documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) launched an examination of the Tea Party on Oct. 8, 2010, claiming a speech by a Tea Party leader made during the organization’s annual convention that criticized President Barack Obama’s education and foreign policies crossed the line from issue advocacy to partisan electioneering. […]

And in a more thorough review of Tea Party applications, the detail not being covered is not a single application for non-profit status was denied even after profiling when a simple search would easily reveal the Tea Party’s political advocacy. This report from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights documents that not a single right wing group has their status denied:

Some of the flagged groups did have their tax-exempt status delayed or did face some additional scrutiny, but not a single group has been denied tax-exempt status.

A May 14 draft report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that none of the 296 questionable applicants had been denied, “For the 296 potential political cases we reviewed, as of December 17, 2012, 108 applications had been approved, 28 were withdrawn by the applicant, none had been denied, and 160 cases were open from 206 to 1,138 calendar days (some crossing two election cycles).” (p. 14)

In fact, the only known 501(c)(4) applicant to recently have its status denied happens to be a progressive group: the Maine chapter of Emerge America, which trains Democratic women to run for office. Although the group did no electoral work, and didn’t participate in independent expenditure campaign activity either, its partisan nature disqualified it from being categorized as working for the “common good.”

The Orange County Tea Party, which has its own blog here, has announced a their participation in a Nationwide Tea Party Protest at the IRS’s Santa Ana office Tuesday May 21.

The OC Tea Party identifies itself as follows:

What is the tea party movement?

It is a movement of WE THE PEOPLE who want to (i) restore our nation to our Founding Father’s wise and timeless original intent, and (ii) preserve our nation of liberty, freedom and equality (eliminate the gross power of special interests).

There are two main purposes of the tea party movement.

#1 -It is to educate, organize and activate WE THE PEOPLE.

#2 -It is also to call out the governments’ unconstitutional acts including naming those individuals or groups that support those acts.

What we believe:

In an attempt to identify the movement more clearly, we have attempted to list the tea party movement’s tenants below. The list started out small, but has grown – indicative of the enormous challenges facing the American people. This list is not inclusive or exclusive, however, if you find yourself unable to hold onto too many of the tenants, you may want to reconsider whether you are part of the tea party movement.

1. We believe that America is good and exceptional. We are patriotic and law abiding. We are concerned for the poor, the hungry and the oppressed but do not believe it is the governments’ role to alleviate these problems through forced taxation. We believe it is the voluntary responsibility of individuals, families, the communities of faith and religion, and other non-profits. We, ourselves, routinely participate in charity.

2. We believe in our Founding Fathers’ original intent, including reliance on, and reverence of, the Judeo-Christian God, and the necessary and rightful free exercise thereof in the civic arena on the local, state or federal level.

3. We believe that our current federal government, namely Congress (both Republicans and Democrats), has over-stepped its Constitutional enumerated powers and is leading America into its demise.

4. We believe that the federal government has been overtaken by the powerful elite progressives both within government and without (special interests) whose underlying agenda is to create an oligarchy with some form of democratic socialism (social justice) and communism enslaving us through increased spending, unreasonable taxation and overbearing government intrusion.

5. We believe that the federal Department of Education is a prime example of an unconstitutional agency wasting and corrupting America. We believe the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Commerce are prime examples of overreach and intrusion of states rights and individual rights.

6. We believe that the tea party has very little in common with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and that OWS originated and is being fed by the very same powerful elite progressives mentioned above in #4.

7. We believe that family and individuals are most important, not the collective. We believe the powerful elite progressives’ agenda is the destruction of the American family and its values.

8. We honor and praise our military and all police/sheriff and fire forces. We believe it is because they freely give the ultimate sacrifice, America is the land of the free, home of the brave and the most highly desired country worldwide.

9. We believe in the right to pursue happiness and believe that capitalism or competition ensures our ability to do so which means personal responsibility and the right to work as hard as we want using our unique gifts and talents. We believe it produces and encourages the best in everyone securing and growing the middle class, fostering great innovations that benefit all of society in the most fair and equitable manner possible.

10. We believe that entitlements are necessary for the few and would be best served by communities of faith and other non-profits voluntarily rather than through forced taxation. We believe Americans have always been generous and caring, especially for the downtrodden or unfortunate.

11. We believe that ObamaCare is unconstitutional, will not solve the problems of the un-insured and will not work. We believe it is unsustainable due to the bureaucracies it will create exploding its costs each year and therefore limiting innovations, hospitals, doctors and equipment. We also believe it will ruin the quality of care as it continues to exploit the doctors, the hospitals and the doctor/patient relationship disallowing necessary testing and procedures.

12. We believe that laws should be enforced to stop illegal immigration and a fence be built along our southern border. We acknowledge that this is a security issue as well as an economic issue and American sovereignty issue of language and culture. We believe Americans have a right to desire, protect and secure its sovereignty as well as require future citizens to assimilate. In addition, discussion of illegal immigration reform cannot be had until the borders are secured, not just merely promised.

13. We believe that special interests and groups divided among class or wealth, race or nationality, sexual preferences or identities, geographic or political parties are being used as tools by the powerful elite progressives to divide rather than to unite or help flourish the American Dream for all.

14. We believe that Islam with its undeniable strong nexus to Shariah Law breeds terrorism. We acknowledge the history of Islamic terrorism from our nation’s early days to the present. We acknowledge the dominant leaders of Islam worldwide that call Israel, “the little Satan,” and America, “the great Satan,” and thus their hatred toward Israel and America calling for their destruction. We acknowledge their agenda to establish a caliphate (dominance of the world under Shariah Law) even within America and, therefore, must be exposed and stopped.

15. We believe that environmentalism has become a means to be used by the government to severely control people and businesses and raise revenue (taxes, fees, penalties, cap & trade) for the government to use, not only for good justifiable programs but also mainly for payoffs, corruption and for its insatiable desire to ever increase and sustain the bureaucracy.

16. We believe in traditional marriage and that forcing the normalization of other sexual identities is an infringement on our 1st amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

17. We believe in pro-life. We believe that society has been deceived into believing that abortion is a necessity for a civil government and that life does not begin at conception. We believe that if the pro-life merits were presented equally and fairly, any reasonable person would have to come to the conclusion that it is in the best interests of society that we be a society that promotes life for the unborn.

Articles on the blog ask if God has abandoned America is the wake of President Obama’s re-election. It calls for boycotting Muslims. And my favorite, that Hamas controls Orange County.

What any of these positions has to do with social justice is beyond me. As far as education and social justice goes, there are a considerable number of sites who fact check Tea party groups and their leaders like Congresswoman Michelle Bachman and Senator Rand Paul who constantly get facts wrong or just make up stuff out of whole cloth. Bachman claims ObamaCare will kill people; Paul suggested the UN will seek to take away firearms from average Americans.

The fact of the matter, Tea Party groups are engaged in one activity — political activism designed to elected only the far right wing members of the GOP. The IRS should revoke their not for profit status based on that alone.

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26 comments for “The IRS Should Investigate Tea Party Groups on Non-Profit Applications”

dwight654@socal.rr.com

May 20, 2013 at 1:26 pm

Just so you know. I have never been politically active. Paid my taxes, minded my business and voted for the one I liked best i.e. Kennedy, Nixon, Clinton, the guy that seemed best for the job. Didn’t vote for Obama because he has never run anything. He just campaigns 24/7. He has never managed, never governed anything. And it shows. He sicced the IRS on his political enemies. They were going to impeach Nixon for doing that but he resigned. Obama is the worst president for the US in a very long time. Your liberal, progressive ideals are nothing compared to Obama’s radical leftist ideology. He has to go and he will continue to give us reasons to impeach him. Remember how we felt about Nixon? That is how I feel about Obama.

let me see; background checks for gun purchases to keep them out of the hands of criminals and those with mental illness, affordable healthcare for Americans, tax cuts and a stimulus that brought us back from the brink of global economic collapse, getting out of Iraq AND Afghanistan…these are radical leftist policies?

junior

May 20, 2013 at 8:09 pm

“.. the IRS is supposed to investigate non-profit status on an organization before granting that status and the groups must be involved in social justice not political activity.”

What a load of crap. The tea party needs to rename itself “the scared white peoples liberation front” because thats exactly what they are.

dwight

May 22, 2013 at 10:02 am

Very good jose. and out come the racists to call everyone they dislike “racist”. You voted for obama because he is black, right?

Dan – I assume that is a list of wonderful things done by obama? It’s bullshit. So is your blog and so is obama. Now that he has had time to really screw things up, the truth is coming out. He will be lucky if he escapes impeachment. Three long years left, plenty of time. The guy is incompetent Dan.

Dan Chmielewski

May 22, 2013 at 1:17 pm

Impeachment on what grounds? If Bush eluded impeachment, there’s a pretty high bar.

Thanks for clearing that up Steve. However, “social justice” still is unadulterated bull$hit.

Jim Bieber

June 4, 2013 at 3:50 pm

Dan,

Waaaaahhhhh! There are groups who profess conservative ideas that are getting non profit status AND they engage in political activities. That’s just shocking unfair and unbalanced! That’s the issue right, we need to end non-profit status for political groups?
It is so intellectually dishonest to complain about non-profit status for political groups as the real problem of the IRS scandal when the vast majority of them are funded and controlled by leftist.
Let’s play a game, you come up with a conservative non-profit group that was approved by the IRS and the estimated amount that it spends on campaigns and I will give you two liberal groups who have multi million dollar budgets who do nothing but campaign – I’ll start – NARAL and the Human Right Campaign (it has campaign in the name but that must mean some general marketing campaign because they don’t do real campaigning in elections right?)
Would you care to make it interesting and make a wager for who names more non-profit right or left wing groups?

Dan Chmielewski

June 4, 2013 at 7:13 pm

Hi Jim. I think about you every time I go to the Farmer’s market with my mesh shopping bags. You asked for two groups. Ok, theTea Party Patriots and the 9/12 Project. Your turn.

junior

June 5, 2013 at 6:35 am

“The IRS Should Investigate Tea Party Groups on Non-Profit Applications”

Should read:
The IRS Should Investigate All Groups on Non-Profit Applications Without Criminal Discrimination

Jim Bieber

June 5, 2013 at 10:29 am

Dan –

Please join with me in taking away the non profit status of the following – (a short list)

Startng with John Kerry donor (former head of the IRS’) wife Susan Anderson’s liberal non profit Public Campiagn
funded by Union money?

Common Cause
Fund for Constitutional Government
Government Accountability Project
Project On Government Oversight
Truth-Telling Project [16] (gov. whistleblowers)
Center for the Study of Responsive Law [17]

Elections
California Voter Foundation
Center for Voting and Democracy
Open Debates
Verified Voting (electronic voting)
America Coming Together
Music for America
League of Conservation Voters
League of Rural Voters [18]
League of Pissed Off Voters [19]
Rock the Vote
Americans For Democratic Action

So you are good with stripping them of non profit status? To beat you to the punch IF we were to tit-for-tat I would give up and surender all the conservative non profits to stop all the liberal foundations and orgs. You guys are the one’s gamming the system ten fold.

Dan Chmielewski

June 5, 2013 at 12:10 pm

Jim —
thanks for the list; if you actually review it instead of cutting and pasting, you’ll note that most of these meet the criteria for non-profit status being involved with social welfare (seriously, the Freedom to Read Foundation, First Amendment Coalition .. you have problems with these groups.)

Hey, if you want to strip MoveOn.org’s status, go ahead. The fact of the matter is non of the Tea Party and Conservative Groups investigated had their applications denied.

But then again, the Bushies (conservative Republicans that they were) did investigate the ACLU and the NAACP and the Church in Pasadena that had an anti-war sermon prior to the 2004 election.

Jim Bieber

June 6, 2013 at 12:33 pm

“The fact of the matter is non of the Tea Party and Conservative Groups investigated had their applications denied” .I had no idea! Yesh such a fuss for this no harm no foul. Someone needs to tell President Obama because he looked and sounded so angry about it when he announced he had learned about it from news reports, vowing to hold those two rouge agents responsible. And you found me out, I dislike reading and the First Amendment because I listed those groups as Liberal activist organizations. I will safely assume you do not like prosperity because you would list American’s for Prosperity as a Conservative organization.

And yes under the Bush Administration the NAACP was “investigated.” You must be very familiar with the details, how many thousands of dollars of its membership money was illegally being diverted as hush money to a mistress? But that’s crazy scurrilous Republican rumor talk and John Edwards gets the husband of the year award.

Honestly, my 13 year old son puts up a better augments of no wrong doing when I catch him playing 5 hours of X-Box. At a certain point you throw in the towel – Nixon had unethical corrupt political operatives who got caught in his administration and so does Obama it’s only a matter of time when they are found out. Why doesn’t Obama condemn anyone who takes the 5th and order or at least instruct them to cooperate? Will his AG plead the 5th as well?

When I was 17 I thought G Gorden Liddy was cool, then I grew up…. how old are you?

Dan Chmielewski

June 6, 2013 at 4:45 pm

Gosh Jim, I’ve been a tad busy to give you a much better argument. But if you thought G. Gordon Liddy was cool ever, then you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.

Funny you should bring up slush funds and Americans for Prosperity. The Koch Brothers backed organization is nothing but a political organization.

Rove’s group should also be called into question; see below from 2010.

Democracy 21, Campaign Legal Center called for IRS investigation into Crossroads GPS. In an October 5.2010 letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman, campaign finance watchdog groups Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center called on the IRS to investigate whether Crossroads GPS “is operating in violation of its tax status because it has a primary purpose of participating in political campaigns in support of, or in opposition to, candidates for public office.” In their letter, the groups write:

The status of Crossroads GPS as a section 501(c)(4) entity allows its donors to evade the public disclosure requirements that would apply if the organization was registered as a section 527 political organization. Section 527 groups are organizations that are “primarily organized and operated” to engage in political activities. By contrast, Section 501(c)(4) organizations are not permitted to be “primarily engaged” in activities to influence elections. They are not required to disclose their donors.

If, in fact, Crossroads GPS is impermissibly operating as a section 501(c)(4) organization in order to conceal its donors from the American people, the IRS has an obligation to take steps to protect the integrity of our tax laws and to make clear that such abuses will not be permitted in future elections.

The biggest difference I see between your organizations and the liberal ones Jim is that conservative/ZTea Party groups are all about politics when politics represent a small portion of the work done by NOW, NAACP, ACLU et al.

From Wonkette:
Non-conservative advocacy groups given special scrutiny by the IRS in or after 2010 included the Coffee Party USA, the alternative to the Tea Party movement that got a bunch of press in 2010, as well as such explicitly progressive groups as the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada; Rebuild the Dream, founded by former Obama administration official Van Jones; and Progressives United Inc., which was founded by former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold.

Also included in the special scrutiny were Progress Texas and Progress Missouri Inc.; Tie the Knot, which sells bow ties to raise money to promote same-sex marriage; and ProgressNow, which describes itself as “a year-round never-ending progressive campaign.”

The targeting also rolled up centrist groups, such as the Across the Aisle Foundation – the educational and cultural arm of No Labels, which worked to build momentum for an independent ticket for the presidency — and politically neutral ones, such as The East Hampton Group for Good Government Inc., formed to encourage better leadership and management of the New York vacation town, and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

Hey Jim, just took my mesh/cloth reusable bags out of the wash; ahhh lemony fresh and clean!

junior

June 6, 2013 at 8:12 pm

There is likely a greater “carbon footprint” from washing reusable bags than using plastic bags.

“I think about you every time I go to the Farmer’s market with my mesh shopping bags. ” If I thought about you, it would be daily as I pick up a steamy pile of dog crap using my reusable plastic grocery bags. As far as calling me an idiot, you cannot understand the difference between scrutiny and harassment. Yes when I was a teenager I thought Liddy was cool. You are a grown man who, I assume admires the “former Obama administration official” who is a “former” because he was too clear and outspoken in being a Communist – I don’t mean Liberal / or Democrat Socialist – hard line Communist – just like Bill Ayres and Bernadine Dorhn. Go on defending the actions of those two rouge agents. When asked about the IRS witness pleading the 5th the president, through his spokesman said “we are not going to comment on someone’s decision on how they chose to testify”. They are without shame. I will have a better time and more of a challenge experience debating my child over what’s better Minecraft VS Halo. You are not an idiot just dishonest with your “you guys did worst” arguments.

Dan Chmielewski

June 7, 2013 at 12:21 pm

Hey Justin (you’ll be forever known as Justin Bieber to me), perhaps you missed the part about the IRS witness who pleaded the 5th was a Bush appointee.

If you really think this was worse than Watergate, you’re a poor student of history.

From TaxAnalysts.com:
And in his May 17 testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, outgoing acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller had the following exchange with Rep. Peter J. Roskam, R-Ill.:

Roskam: If the targeting wasn’t targeting, if the targeting wasn’t based on philosophy, how come only conservatives got snagged?
Miller: They didn’t, sir. Organizations from all walks and all persuasions were pulled in. That’s shown by the fact that only 70 of the 300 organizations were Tea Party organizations of the ones that were looked at by TIGTA.

****
its report, TIGTA reviewed all 298 applications for tax-exempt status that were classified by IRS employees in Cincinnati as “potential political cases” from May 2010 through May 2012. Some of these were flagged for special attention because the words “Tea Party,” “patriots,” or “9-12 project” were referenced in their case file or because their applications espoused policy positions that would be associated with conservative causes. “Potential political cases” is the term used by TIGTA. The IRS uses the term “advocacy cases,” and before July 2011 it used the term “Tea Party cases.” (See footnote 13 of the report.)
Of these 298 applications, TIGTA reported that 96 had “Tea Party,” “patriots,” or “9-12 project” in their names (Figure 4). TIGTA, however, made no determination as to which of the 298 were selected based on the organization’s policy positions (footnote 18). The TIGTA report also found that 89 of these applications were for 501(c)(3) status, and the remaining 209 were for 501(c)(4) status.

The 176 Who Made It Through

On May 15 the IRS released a list of 176 advocacy organizations that were approved for tax-exempt status. This group of applications should have considerable overlap with the 298 that were the subject of the TIGTA report. But there are two differences. First, the TIGTA list covers organizations regardless of whether there was subsequent approval. The later IRS list only includes organizations receiving approval. By law, the IRS may only disclose information from organizations that have received approval.
Second, the TIGTA list does not include applications received after May 2012. The later IRS list could include organizations whose applications were received by the IRS office in Cincinnati after May 2012.

In a separate May 15 release, the IRS said the total number of advocacy cases it has handled since the selection began in May 2010 is approximately 470. This suggests that approximately 172 applications (that is, 470 minus 298) have been filed after the end of the application period examined by TIGTA.

Of the 176 organizations the IRS has approved, Tax Analysts counted 46 that had either “Tea Party,” “patriots,” or “9-12 project” in their name. The table released by the IRS indicated that 136 of all approved organizations were awarded 501(c)(4) status, 39 received 501(c)(3) status, and one was granted 501(c)(6) status.